Bryce Turner, of Inside Track Motorsports News, has found the “Alex Palou of the NASCAR Canada Series.”
In a rare joint appearance with the NTT IndyCar Series this weekend—on the 2.19-mile temporary street course in the Toronto suburb of Markham, Ontario—NASCAR Canada showcased its three-time champion Marc-Antoine Camirand. He won Saturday’s 40-lap overtime decision from the pole in the prelude to qualifying for IndyCar’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy race.
That’s just the kind of performance that led Turner to launch his own research about comparing Camirand to Chip Ganassi Racing’s four-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou.
Turner compared Palou’s and Camirand’s racing results from 2021 to the present and discovered that the two racers have strikingly similar statistics, despite their respective motorsports’ obvious differences.
Entering this weekend, each is leading his standings, coming off back-to-back victories, and celebrating six triumphs so far this season. Palou has 25 career victories in 111 starts (for 25.77 winning percentage), Camirand 24 in 73 (33.33). Camirand has the laps-led advantage coming into Markham with 2,438 to Palou’s 2,288. But Palou is ahead in podium finishes (50, 51.55 percent to 41, 56.16 percent) and top-five finishes (66, 68.04 percent to 51, 69.86).
Former NFL defensive lineman embarking on stock-car career
One of the most compelling stories in the NASCAR Canada series this season is new, part-time driver Jared Odrick in the No. 24 Ford Mustang. Odrick, 38, took an unusual route to auto racing—by way of the National Football League and the film industry.
The Miami Dolphins’ 2010 first-round draft pick as an All-America defensive end from Penn State, he played for seven seasons with Miami and the Jacksonville Jaguars. And this weekend, he’s on the same “playing field” as the NTT IndyCar Series.
Icon Sportswire//Getty Images
The 6-foot-5 football tough-guy responsible for 170 tackles and 23 sacks transitioned to acting, playing opposite Sylvester Stallone in Samaritan and portraying the Tooth Fairy in the short film, Filling In. His behind-the-camera work includes being a producer for the 2015 film Roller Coaster, and the driving force behind the 2023 NFL/CTE documentary Am I Crazy? Now Odrick is carving out a career as a stock-car driver after establishing himself as road racer with an SCCA Runoffs GT2 championship (2023) and a Trans Am TA2 Pro-Am title (2025).
He finished 15th in Saturday’s 23-car line-up.
Familiar faces to IndyCar fans on the NASCAR/USF Markham undercard
Former IndyCar racer Alex Tagliani, who competed in America’s premier open-wheel series (then known as CART) beginning in 2000 and captured the Indianapolis 500 pole position in 2011, has been a regular in the NASCAR Canada Series since 2007. He earned his first stock-car victory in 2008 at the old Edmonton Airport Track in 2008.
In his new venture, Tagliani has 12 victories in 123 starts, claiming 12 wins, 56 top-fives, 87 top-10s, 12 pole awards, and 1,779 laps led. He was not a factor in Saturday’s event.
Sam Fellows, 32, son of racing legend Ron Fellows, was seeking his first NASCAR Canada victory this weekend but experienced made contact with the wall. He finished 21st.
In the USF 2000 race Saturday, August 15, 2026, Oliver Wheldon – son of the late two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and 2005 IndyCar series champion Dan Wheldon – finished fifth in Saturday’s first race of the series’ doubleheader.
Jack Jeffers’ third USF Pro 2000 victory of the season in Saturday’s Race 1 of 2 this weekend at Markham gave him the points lead with four races to go.
Susan Wade has lived in the Seattle area for 40 years, but motorsports is in the Indianapolis native’s DNA. She has emerged as one of the leading drag-racing writers with nearly 30 seasons at the racetrack, focusing on the human-interest angle. She was the first non-NASCAR recipient of the prestigious Russ Catlin Award and has covered the sport for the Chicago Tribune, Newark Star-Ledger, and Seattle Times. She has contributed to Autoweek as a freelance writer since 2016.